Time tracking blog

As a Realtor, one of the most difficult aspects of your job is proving your worth.  Even once you’ve successfully completed the purchase or sell transaction there’s often questions of what you did for your client to earn your fee (aside from the obvious of getting the results they expected).

Since the real estate industry is mostly comprised of contractors (very few Realtors are employees), it’s not a requirement to track time spent working on tasks (as opposed to employees who have to clock-in and/or fill out timesheets). Without this time tracking task, it’s very difficult to provide your clients with a report showing them the time (and money) spent on getting their property sold or finding them a new one to purchase. This is often an overlooked task and if performed correctly would aid in justifying your fees.

To place emphasis on the importance of time tracking (from a client’s perspective) let’s imagine that your furnace quits working and you have a service man over for repairs.  He fixes your problem and hands you a bill for $500, but he doesn’t itemize how he spent his time.  Wouldn’t you question what he did for $500?  What if all he did was perform as simple a task as flipping a switch? You probably would be reluctant to pay without knowing what type of work was performed.  Right?  Now, imagine he handed you a detailed invoice outlining exactly what he did and how much time he spent on each task. You’d probably feel a little better about paying for the service at this point.  This same need is present in real estate transactions. Clients want to know how and where you spent your time, and more importantly, what you did to prove your worth.

By tracking your time using a timesheet or time clock system, you can effectively provide your clients with detailed information about how and what you spent your time on. This gives you ammo when the “What did you do for me to sell my home?” question arrises and in turn, helps you prove your worth.  And with over 1.3 million Realtors to compete against, any extra edge you can get is huge.

Track your time.  You’ll be more productive, provide better service and have happier (and more) clients.

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